But why would they ever? The water out of the aquifer they probably just get for free. That’s likely one of the reasons why they built there in the first place.
Its not free, but it is much cheaper than running a closed loop water system. There are two datacenters being built in my water co-op’s service footprint right now. One is an Amazon AWS datacenter and the other is national brand of server colocation services. The AWS datacenter is using an “open loop” cooling method, just like the DC in the article. It will be a massive water consumer. The other is a “closed loop” cooler, which barely ranks differently than other businesses in the area as far as water consumption.
Amazon is paying our co-op handsomely for the water our co-op is providing, but its still less money than the equivalent costs than a closed loop system and the energy it would take to achieve the same cooling result.
Its not free, but it is much cheaper than running a closed loop water system. There are two datacenters being built in my water co-op’s service footprint right now. One is an Amazon AWS datacenter and the other is national brand of server colocation services. The AWS datacenter is using an “open loop” cooling method, just like the DC in the article. It will be a massive water consumer. The other is a “closed loop” cooler, which barely ranks differently than other businesses in the area as far as water consumption.
Amazon is paying our co-op handsomely for the water our co-op is providing, but its still less money than the equivalent costs than a closed loop system and the energy it would take to achieve the same cooling result.